1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photo finishing system, and more particularly to a photo finishing system capable of making a hard copy such as a photoprint, by utilizing a film processor with an image pickup unit, in combination with a printer or printer-processor for recording a video image on a recording material.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a photographic mini-lab, a photographic film, e.g., color negative film, is developed by a film processor. The developed negative film is placed in a printer or a printer-processor, wherein the images of original frames recorded on the color negative film are photographically projected onto a color paper to make photoprints. With such a photo finishing system, a color negative film is first developed, and then the developed film is set into a printer or a printer-processor. Therefore, in such a photo finishing system, a color negative film cannot be placed into a printer or printer-processor before it has been completely developed by the film processor.
As shown in FIG. 10, making photoprints with a conventional photo finishing system by using a printer-processor includes a film development process, a film setting process, a print process, and a paper development process. It takes a minimum of about 20 minutes to develop a customer-deposited exposed negative film and obtain final photoprints. A film processor processes color negative films one roll after another, and each color negative film is coupled with a sturdy or stiff leader sheet. After the development process, the sheet is peeled off from the film. This peeling work is cumbersome and takes tens of seconds or more. Furthermore, it is necessary to manually place a developed negative film in a printer or printer-processor, and damage of the developed film may occur during such manual handling.
As shown in FIG. 11, it is conceivable that a film processor and printer-processor may be coupled together to feed a color negative film developed by the film processor directly to the printer-processor, thereby lessening the processing time. In this case, however, it is necessary to provide a film guide mechanism and the like for automatically feeding a developed color negative film from the film processor to the film carrier of the printer-processor. Such a guide mechanism serves to complicate the system structure.